Vigilante Justice - A Young Justice Fanfiction

Chapter 12: A Little Hostility

It was somewhat difficult to tell, but there looked to be five or six of them, each in horrifying states of gruesome disassembly.

Flies had gathered, their incessant buzzing mingling with the police radio chatter and forensic gibberish. Also mixing with the already putrid scent of the bar's cigarette smoke stuffiness, was the smell of death. A sort of nose-curling rot that had Artemis' stomach folding in on itself.

She wanted to look away, felt the pull of muscles screaming at her to just leave, but she knew a single detail could be what broke the case.

Heroes couldn't afford the luxury of ignorance. Not here, not ever.

Blood and fluids slicked the worn wooden dance floor, spilling from the bodies of the mangled victims.

Mauled, Artemis thought blearily. It looked like they'd been mauled.

Someone had already thought to pull a plastic sheet over two of the bodies, but the rest were still being photographed as topical evidence.

Grayson's unexpected movement to their right was the only thing strong enough to pull her from her stupor, his heavy boots squelching in the red mess at their feet as he walked away.

Later, she would be shocked by his quick recovery over the macabre sight. Now, it took everything in her to swallow down the bile in her throat and follow him.

At the moment, she didn't have any room left for extra conspiracies.

He seemed to be heading toward a tall, gangly man toting a large black bag. Said man was pale, borderline gaunt, and absolutely seething at Grayson.

Artemis was half surprised Grayson didn't join the dead bodies on the floor; that glare was lethal.

The celebrity slash detective stopped in front of the glaring man, inclining his head slightly in lieu of a greeting.

The man, who looked even taller next to Grayson's diminutive stature, ignored the nod entirely. "What are you doing here, Dick?"

The detective didn't even blink at the barbed insult. Evidently, this wasn't his first rodeo. "How original, Addams. I see your promotion has gone straight to your already over-inflated head."

Kid Flash, who'd followed after Grayson with rest of the team, smothered a snort. Even stone faced Kaldur quirked a small smile.

The man—Addams—turned an exotic shade of plum beneath his greasy mop of hair. "Why are you here? And why are they here?" He turned his grey gaze on the heroes, fixing the still grinning Wally with an especially dark scowl. "Come to usurp my investigation again?"

Grayson rolled his eyes at the other man's obvious dramatics. When he spoke, there was a slight strain in his voice, like he was struggling to keep his tone civil. "No. I'm here because a witness wants to talk to me. And they're here because the commissioner assigned us a case together."

"Still acting as Griffin's little lackey, I see. No surprise there," Addams gave an extremely unflattering snort. "You always were a suck-up."

"Yes." Grayson's face could've been etched from stone with how blank it was. "I assume you're referring to when I paid off the whole college board, and slept with several academy instructors, and gave an erotic pole dancing show to the dean, and water boarded the award's committee so I'd graduate with my full scholarship intact."

Beside her, Kaldur looked flabbergasted. Even Artemis, who'd grown up on the rather shady side of things, was taken aback by his apparent confession.

"Garh! You are insufferable. I know you did those things! Just because I could never find out the truth—"

This time it was Grayson who snorted, "You wouldn't know the truth if it smacked you in the face."